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Organizers of Bargain Box still remember certain shoppers: the man who bought five dozen pairs
of shoes to ship back to his home village in Somalia, the college graduate proudly outfitting her
first apartment, the single mother who found crib linens for a couple of bucks.

Come autumn, the annual rummage sale of 65 years will be no more.

The Junior League of Columbus has ended its Bargain Box event, conducted each October at
Veterans Memorial.

The 2013 affair marked the final sale — which, as always, offered an array of low-priced items
spanning silverware to formalwear.

“I can’t tell you how many people relied on it for holiday gifts,” said Karlye Martin, president
of the league.

The demise comes as a cost of progress: Veterans Memorial, at 300 W. Broad St., is to be
demolished this year to make way for the Ohio Veterans Memorial and Museum, which won’t offer an
event venue as the current building does.

Bargain Box planners, Martin said, couldn’t find a similar space at a comparable rental cost or
close enough to Downtown and the public-transportation routes that many Bargain Box shoppers
needed.

Also complicating matters was the sale of an East Side warehouse that had long provided storage
for the thousands of items amassed and sorted year-round by the active and sustaining league
members and some spouses.

The Junior League, a nonprofit women’s group, promotes volunteerism and community
improvement.

Bargain Box raised more than $1.75 million since 1949 for the league’s backpack drive, in-school
nutrition classes, the operation of the Kelton House Museum & Garden and community events.

Each league member was required to supply at least $150 worth of new or gently used merchandise
(“If you wouldn’t give it to your best friend, we don’t want it,” a Bargain Box representative toldTheDispatch in 2002). Bob Evans, Big Lots and other companies also donated goods.

Bargain Box was known for its diamonds-in-the-rough stock and loyal clientele.

Savvy attendees would flock to the Friday-night preview event that, for a $5 entry fee, granted
access to the goods a day early.

By Saturday morning, according to marketing chairwoman Sara Barton, “There was a line down the
block and around the corner.”

Shoppers would go home toting trash bags, suitcases and wagons packed full of bargain-basement
bounties.

Unclaimed items were offered free to charities such as Mothers Helping Mothers.

The South Side shelter for teenage moms and their children will miss the contributions, group
founder Cortesha Cowan said.

“I’m sad to hear it,” Cowan said. “This really did help a lot of our moms. We got lamps,
bedding, a whole lot of clothing, toys for our day-care facility.”

Once thought to be the largest such fundraiser in central Ohio, the Bargain Box concept had
waned in recent years amid the rise of thrift stores, higher-end consignment shops and online
marketplaces.

Annual attendance and profits had both declined.

Without Bargain Box, the Junior League will redirect about 2,000 hours of volunteer

labor to other service projects.

Still, the women understand the void — notably, the thrill of the hunt — left behind.

“We decided it was probably the right decision,” Martin said, “but a very hard one.”